No business in Oregon approaches Intel’s economic might, and the company put a number to that heft Thursday: $26.7 billion.

That’s Intel’s annual impact on the Oregon economy, according to a new study of the company’s economic contributions to the state. It’s the fourth in a series of similar reports Intel has commissioned over several years from the Portland research firm ECONorthwest.

The study notes that Intel employs more Oregonians than any other business: 16,500 in 2012 (employment has since grown to more than 17,000.). Its Oregon payroll has grown from $1.8 billion in 2009, at the time of the last study, to $2.8 billion.

Though Intel’s headquarters are in California, the company’s largest and most advanced operations are in Washington County, where it operates four big campuses and where 70 percent of its Oregon employees live. Intel designs each new generation of microprocessor at its Ronler Acres manufacturing campus near Hillsboro Stadium.

It began operations earlier this year in a new, $3 billion research factory at Ronler Acres called D1X, where Intel is now crafting its next generation of microprocessor, based on leading-edge 10-nanometer circuitry.

Intel is now in the process of adding a second phase to D1X. Construction will continue for another two years; then, Intel will spend another year equipping that second phase.

Intel’s capital spending in Oregon jumped from $2.5 billion in 2011 to $4.2 billion last year, according to the study. ECONorthwest’s report does not mention D1X, but building and equipping the new factory likely contributed significantly to that spending leap.

To arrive at the grand total of Intel’s economic impact, ECONorthwest bundled together the company’s direct spending and payroll with taxes generated, and with indirect impacts through suppliers and others who benefit when Intel and its employees spend their money.

Measuring those impacts is a famously inexact process; ECONorthwest calls its $26.7 billion figure for Intel’s total impact an “upper bound estimate.”

The manufacturing-intensive nature of Intel’s operations contributes to its outsized economic role, according to ECONorthwest. The firm writes that electronics production, which represented a third of Oregon’s manufacturing activity in 2001, has grown to nearly 80 percent.

Manufacturing has been responsible for half of Oregon’s economic growth since 1997, according to ECONorthwest, compared to 1 percent nationally in the same period. During that stretch, the firm writes that Oregon’s economic output has slightly outpaced national growth.

“Intel is clearly not responsible for all the good news in Oregon’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth,” the report says. “But as the major player in the rapidly growing computer and electronics sector, the presence of Intel has significantly shaped the state’s economic landscape.”

It’s no secret why Intel commissioned this report. Nike and others have hired ECONorthwest to document their economic contribution for elected officials and for residents, too.

Intel’s study comes as the company feels more public pressure than it has in many years. It’s under fire from its neighbors in Hillsboro and from environmental activists for failing to disclose fluoride emissions at its Washington County factories.

That failing has complicated Intel’s pursuit of an air quality permit for D1X and outraged neighbors. Intel has acknowledged an embarrassing mistake and is currently negotiating a good-neighbor agreement that would require more disclosure and closer monitoring of pollutants that leave its factories.

Last week’s deal is very similar to one Nike reached last year; it doesn’t cut Intel’s taxes, but assures that the current favorable tax structure will remain in place.

Additionally, Intel receives tax breaks through the state’s Strategic Investment Program, which exempts the company’s expensive manufacturing equipment from property taxes. Those exemptions have saved Intel more than $500 million since 2001.

The current SIP puts a $25 billion ceiling on the value of the equipment exempt from property taxes. Intel expects to hit that limit in 2016, and will almost certainly seek a new deal with Washington County and Hillsboro before that.

Correction: Intel has revised its property tax calculation. It paid $20.8 million in property taxes, not $42.3 million. The article has been corrected to reflect that revision.